Potty Training by Almost 3 Year Old Little Man

Updated on December 15, 2006
M.R. asks from Marana, AZ
10 answers

So I am trying hard to potty train my youngest child, He will sit on the potty and do number one if asked, but he does not tell you he needs to go. And he will not do number two at all on the potty. Between Grandma and I we have tried every trick we know little toys for little accomplishments. Stickers, treats in the food neighborhood. And now he wants to be in "unnerware" like his big brother (4 1/2) and we can't not get him to understand that he need to be willing to tell us he needs to go, and then actually go in the potty. I would very much like him to be in "unnerware" as well. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

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So What Happened?

I just wanted to thank everyone for there encouragement and suggestions we are going to give big boy unnerware a try tomorrow and see if the feeling of being wet and dirty doesn't inspire some motivation to speak up. I will let you know how it goes :)

Okay so all Thanksgiving weekend long we encouraged and remembered to have my little man sit on the potty. And yesterday (11/26) he only had two accidents, and when I say accidents I simply mean that his pull up/diaper was wet only twice though, I feel so encouraged by that. Not to mention his declaration that "he is on the potty train" his words not mine. Thanks to all of you for your advice and words of encouragement.

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L.A.

answers from Denver on

hi M.,
I would recommend to you to read the book "toilet training in less than a day. I used this book to potty train my son, and he was 2 years old. It really worked for us. He did not start pooping on the potty untill about 6 or 7 months later. As strange as this may sound, Ive been told that they feel like the poop is a part of them and they have a hard time "letting go of it" Also, they have always had their diaper changed, and they have never seen it before. I think its just weird for them. I hope this helps.

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S.P.

answers from Fort Collins on

My son didn't tell me when he had to go either, but I just put him in big boy undies and kept him on a schedule (with drinks/meals) and had him go occasionally and before we went anywhere...it took a few months, but he finally is going on his own now. Sometimes it just takes time when nothing else works.
A great tip I was given for nighttime was to put a pad down under a sheet, then put another on top of that and another sheet, so if he has an accident at night, you can just take one sheet and pad off and hopefully the one underneath is dry (if it stayed on the pad.) then you're not changing the whole bed in the middle of the night.

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A.C.

answers from Phoenix on

I am in the middle of potty training my little 2 1/2 year old boy myself so I know how it is.
I got my guy to started with the Gerber training underware .
they are bit thicker than normal underware so if and when he had an accident at least some of it was soaked up a bit.

It took a few accidents before he realized he didnt like wet underware and that he wouldnt have anymore to wear for the day since they were all dirty, but he has now transitioned to the "big boy" underware during the day. Now if only he would get the same concept for going number two.

As trying as it can be I say let them take their baby steps towards going potty because it seems the harder I push my son the more reluctant he is to go on his own.

As other mothers have told me they will come around and get the hang of it. If not there would be a lot of grown men out there still wearing pull ups.

1 mom found this helpful
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L.H.

answers from Colorado Springs on

I heard that boys are a lot differnet than girls. All I can say is just continue doing what you are doing and try to be patient. It took us forever to potty train our daughter. She wasn't potty trained till about a month before her third birthday. It is all about consistancy. I put her is panties and when she would wet herself she didn't like it running down her leg. So I would then tell her that she needed to tell me when she had to go and then it would not run down her leg. L.

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A.H.

answers from Phoenix on

Well I had many problems with my son and 1 mos before he turned 3 I took his pull ups away during the day. My son did not like this. he was in tears wanting his pullups. I let him wear them at night and when we went out. Many people told me about this so they actually feel what they are doing. At first he will still have alot of accidents but with my son I simply potty him on a reg basis setting the timer so he even knew when it went off it was time to try. If he had accidents I simply rushed him to the potty had him sit as long as he would tolerate and tell him this is where we go potty not in our underware. It get old saying it over and over in a calm manner.

Within 2 weeks he started going on a regular basis sometimes independantly , sometimes I had to remind him, and he still had some accidents but it was a drastic improvement in 1 month because I struggled so bad trying to train him!

Once he started going regularly is when I started a potty chart where everytime he went we put stickers on it. He thought this was a blast! When it was filled up we would then get him a sm toy.

The underware and the potty chart thing helped tremendensly. So thats what helped us. Good luck. I know its a struggle.
A.

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L.L.

answers from Denver on

If he want to wear underpants you could buy him those training pants and put plastic pants over them so that his accidents don't go everywhere but he will still feels them wet. My older kids were a little over 3 before they were ready. My 2 year old has been potty trained since a little over 2. All kids are different.

L.

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W.B.

answers from Phoenix on

We had similar issues potty training our son, too. The only thing we could think of, at the time, to keep his fanny on the seat long enough to poop on it was to bribe him. Our son is a sucker for bubbles. We'd blow them with him or let him blow them, but only so long as he was on the toilet. The minute he jumped off, we quit with the bubbles.

It eventually worked. He accidentally pooped on the toilet, we made a huge deal out of it and it kind of all "clicked" for him.

Good luck! Sounds like everything is going in the right direction!

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L.K.

answers from Flagstaff on

Hey I have three little boys and my youngest was the hardest to train, in fact he is 4 1/2 and still needs pull-ups at night when we does not get a nap. My mom is the one who had words of wisdom for me in my time of frustration, this is what she said some kids are just not ready by 3, yes they are perfectly capable of doing it and they should but why spend your time forcing them at three. She said to ask myself a question.....How many kinder gardeners do u know that still wear diapers.....lol so i relaxed and let it go for the time and sure enough with in 6 months when "HE" decided it was time the duty was done.Good luck!!

L.

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L.C.

answers from Denver on

I am slowly pottying training my 2 1/2 boy. We thought he was doing so well, going 2 -3 times per day but a wet diaper doesn't really phase him and he didn't tell me when he needed to (I don't think he really understood that). We tried pull -ups which I found really annoying and a huge leak issue. We went back to diapers for now. I am sure he'll get back into it. I may try again at christmas when he's not a preschool and he'll be at home more. We don't push it. Remember, potty training isn't about when you and your mother are ready but when the child is ready.
Check various websites for the signs of readiness.. maybe he's not quite there yet.

L.

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J.M.

answers from Phoenix on

My son is 4 now but when i potty trained him I did put him in regular underware and just asked him every 15-20 minutes if he had to go. I stayed on it for a whole week and after that he was doing great. Of course he would have accidents once in a while but he got the point of what he needed to do. At night i put training pants on him for a month after that but when they ran out that was it.

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